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When I was six years old, my mother got me and my two older brothers a Game Boy Color and corresponding copy of Pokémon each. My oldest brother got a red Game Boy and Pokémon Red, the next one got a blue one and Pokémon Blue, and I got a yellow console with Pokémon Yellow. I remember the little huddle we had away from the adults afterwards where my brother showed me how the game worked and explained how we could trade our monsters with each other. My eyes lit up as I not only fell in love with the cute little Pikachu that followed my every move on the screen, but as I realized that I’d be able to play this on my own when I wanted to, then connect to and play with my brothers when we were all able. I wish I could say it became a lifelong tradition and we all still play today, but even if it only lasted a little while it was a clever gift that made great use of gaming’s ability to not only bring people together, but to dynamically transform solo playtime into shared time together, and back again, so you can always feel connected to people, even when playing alone.

So, to celebrate the holiday season, we want to know: what are some of your favourite gaming-related Christmas stories from over the years? It could be anything, from something you gave or got, to a casual game helping break the ice during an awkward family dinner, or gaming providing a way to bond with a younger relative.

From all of us here at GBAtemp, we want to wish you and yours a merry Christmas and a happy new year!

 

[Deleted User]

i cant recall if it was christmas or new year, but i spent the eve with my father, at like 2 he went to sleep, but i wasnt tired so i played csgo, my team were some peruvians who had no one to spent the holidays with, so i was their only company, the match goes on, we are loosing 10-14, by virtue of being the only one with a mic, i decide to become IGL, and surprisingly, my strats worked and we won

 

[Fusion]

My best memories of Christmas is knowing it's almost over permanently......till i notice i still have an extra life

 

[tfocosta]

Back in 1998, I've received my old PSX with Gran Turismo and 2 controllers. It was the best present ever with amazing graphics for that time! I just remember not being able to accelerate at first, as I kept pressing the triangle button rather than X and the car was moving backwards instead with "Wrong Way" written in the screen and the camera mode didn't show the car by default. My dad ended up taking the controller from me and finding out how it worked. For someone who came from a NES with only 2 buttons and the D-pad, I felt challenged with a Dual-Shock at the time.

 

[relauby]

EDIT: damn... Forgot my actual best Christmas... It was two or three years ago. The whole 'presents' thing I mentioned earlier had passed. But I had some board games with me. Taught my 2 (Inlaw) nephews how to play dixit and Catan. We had a blast doing it.
Granted, it was only accidentally Christmas and had nothing to do with the presents, but it was absolutely my best gaming moment at Christmas day.

That's a great one! I have a little four-year old niece and honestly my favourite gaming-related Christmas memory is sitting down to play Yeti in my Spaghetti with her after I gave it to her on Christmas.

 

[SexiestManAlive]

definitely when i got the wii, was the best moment of my young life lol

 

[XDel]

OK, my mother was always very anti-video game, though she was kind enough to get the new systems of my choice upon their release.
When the Gameboy came out, she stole mine and locked her self in the room playing Tetris for four hours, while I occasionally came to the door and begged for my Gameboy back.

She would deny this story to this day if she were still alive.

Best Christmas gift ever!

 

[Xalusc]

Waking up on... Christmas 2005 I think?
And getting two of my favorite games of all time from "Santa", Star Fox 64 and Zelda Ocarina of Time.

I know, it was a year before the Wii released, but the N64 (and a Mega Drive which later broke down) was the only console I had growing up. By the time I got the PS2, it was like 2011.

 

[Jayro]

In 1998, my brother and I got Pokemon Red and Blue for our gameboys, and I had just upgraded to a Gameboy Color. We loved trading and battling each other.

 

[chrisrlink]

well gaming i think was luigi's mansion ssb melee and a jet black gamecube

 

[TinyBilbo]

Watching my 85 yr old dad s**t his pants (figuratively) as he played Creed: Rise to Glory on the Oculus Quest I gave to my daughter last Christmas.
Those fighters really appear close and large, especially if it's your 1st time in VR!

Other than that my uncle getting an Atari pong console circa 1976 or 1977 and not letting me play it because I was a kid!
(I played the crap out of it anyway, and was instantly hooked on video games).

Basically every Christmas after that has had something game related in it, only now it's my kids on the receiving end... :-)

 

[DarknessPlay3r]

So many years to choose from... The year I got my OG Xbox and Halo?
Maybe the one I got by GBC, a gameshark, Pokemon Red & Blue, or the one where my dad built me a killer gaming PC that marked the first PC that was my own?
Perhaps the year I got an interact V3 steering wheel and started learning to drive in NFS III Hotpursuit. (First time driving a car was 13 and this had helped immensely in learning to drive)

Then I read this:

Definitely the Christmas that the PS2 came out. My parents were too poor to afford anything more than a few Goodwill toys and a Sega Genesis game.

So after I opened all my small presents, my uncle came by. He might as well have been Santa himself cuz he pulled a giant box out of his car and handed it to me.

It was a PlayStation 2, with 3 games, strategy guides, an extra controller. Everything. Kid-me had never see anything like it. I’m pretty sure I cried because I was so overwhelmed and my uncle was like “oh crap I’m sorry I guess you wanted an Xbox?” But I was just so happy and amazed that my reaction was to happy-cry lol.

My first and best gaming related Christmas memory:
1993 I got my Sega Genesis (a second gen model) that came with Sonic 2, along with an aftermarket turbo controller. I also got Sonic Spinball.

While the Genesis itself was a gift from my parents, the reason I got one that year was my uncle. When trying to buy one locally didn't work, the next best bet was Vancouver (which is also an 8hr drive from home) he managed to get one and also got me Sonic Spinball to go with it. Spinball being the "gift" from him, little did I know at the time he came through like he always did for us.

My parents were poor as fuck too but they always managed to do something awesome for Christmas (thanks to help from the rest of the family). All the stuff I mentioned above, my uncle had a hand in helping my family get one way or another. It's only now that I'm writing this did I realize that, my uncle was fucking awesome.

I say was, as this is the first Christmas with out my uncle. He passed away earlier this year sadly.

Though I call him my uncle it wasn't as simple as that. He was my dad's best friend since kindergarten (almost 60 years of friendship). As a kid/teenager I was under the impression he was my uncle. It made sense, he always came to visit and bring gifts during the holidays/birthdays, often came to holiday dinners. Never once forgot my birthday. I couldn't say the same about my other relatives.

I'd say that was my most favorite/cherished Christmas memory, not only do I have all of those consoles/games to this day most every year around this time I do one thing, and this year and from now on I'll be doing it in memory of my uncle...

I play Sonic Spinball, and beat the shit out of Robotnik like it's 1993...

 

[Deleted User]

Waking up to open a box with probably one of my favorite games of all times, Super Mario Galaxy. During that time, I was passing for rough times inside my family, and even tho I was just a little child in that time, in retrospective, I can notice how much pain I was feeling even If I was a really young human being. Not matter how hard my life has been, video games has always been there for me, in the worst of the times, they were a distraction that make me want to continue, even if I felt lonely and even useless in this world. When I opened the box, I immediately got upstairs to play the game, and I played it for hours until I felt sleep with the controller in my hand.

Super Mario Galaxy was more that just a game, it make me feel like in a magic world where all the problems that were in my house and inside my family didn't even exist. It was beautiful, and it was a peace and joy that I have only felt a few times in my life. Years passed, and, sadly, things didn't became easier for me. But I will never forget the joy I felt when I opened that box. To this day, Super Mario Galaxy has an special place in my heart. It may sound ridiculous, but sometimes while hearing the soundtrack, it just makes me want to cry.

Everybody has a game, book, movie or piece of art that defined his life in some way or another. Super Mario Galaxy is that for me. Cause not matter what happens, I will never forget the joy and happiness of that 8 year old, smiling while looking Mario jump and spin.

 

[Golds]

old member incoming.

when I was young the original game boy came out. Man, I wanted one so bad! I asked my parents and Santa and anyone else who would listen.
along come Christmas. I wake up early so excited to play tetris and mario, as I was a Nintendo Power subscriber (I have all of them still), and Nintendo talked up a big game for the game boy. I snuck out to see what Santa left, and my parents, being the cool ones, made Santa leave out all the best stuff un-wrapped like he just dropped them off. Sitting on our dining room table was a Tandy 1000HX computer. My mom worked for Radio Shack, so this was a top of the line computer system at the time. I flipped the fu*k out and cried my eyes out, ran to my parents and said Santa brought a computer and I didn't want that, all I wanted was a game boy.
I cried and cried, and they calmed me down. My baby brother woke up, and we continued to have normal Christmas. I was so depressed as we opened gifts, and clothes and shoes came out. At the end, just like "A Christmas Story" my Dad said "whats that one over there". One last wrapped gift. Hell yea it was a fucking game boy. And to this day I'll never live it down, crying over a computer.
Turns out, that computer was fucking fantastic. I got an intel overdrive chip and used it to connect to the first dial up internet we could get. Played Hero's Quest (quest for glory), Descent 1 and 2, ( 2 had a dial up only multiplayer mode that my buddy would play with me), and started me on my quest to build great PC's and play the best games.

but that game boy man, I loved that thing too. I played the shit out of it, beat Mario land, and Mario Land 2, fell in love with Final Fantasy adventure, still a big Final Fantasy Fan. As I got older, game boy color came out, and I had to get that with pokemon, as I worked at a church camp and I didnt know what the fuck Charizard was, so I got a game boy color to learn. I played a camper via gameboy link who had a level 99 squirtle in the first area.... he ever left and played so much he got level 99 just in the opening area.

That moved me to the gameboy advance, where I was formally introduced to flash cards. I had a friend who's dad went to Japan and came back with an Snes floppy disk copier. And I never turned back. I found GBAtemp, and have been a fan of modding and jailbreaking systems. I'm not so much into it now as I was when I had 250 gba games with cheats hard coded in the rom file, like "written by BLAZEX" with some NIN type jam as the intro. But I still like to see the news and where gbatemp has gone, and where it will go.

I'm old now. I have a wife and 3 kids, and I love to game. And I will always be interested and support the efforts of the modding community. I don't mod my stuff anymore. But I still have my DS Acecard2 somewhere. And I have an Snes Everdrive lying around. But this community is amazing, and I hope I am welcome forever.

 

[campbell0505]

Pretty sure it was Christmas 2008, got a DS Lite, the red mario edition with the mario logo on the right, along with a TTDS Advance. Still own both the DS and the Flashcart, cool to see my old saves

 

[plasturion]

When i was 6 i recived russian Game & Watch clone. That was really something. You were a wolf and have to catch falling eggs into basket. It was 6th of december in Santa's holiday. For kids december is the best because Santa brings presents twice that month.

 

[Delerious]

The year was 1993 and I was in kindergarten at the young age of 6. My parents got us a Sega Genesis to share, and there were six of us. I remember it came bundled with Sonic the Hedgehog 2, and they bought a second controller on the side. From that Christmas onward, my brother and I would each get another game every year, though our parents would pick for us the first couple of years.

The two memories that stick out most to me though was the year I got Sonic and Knuckles, and I played that game immediately until I beat it. And when I saw on the box that you could put Sonic 2 and Sonic 3 on it, my eyes lit up so brightly, I swore I was seeing the lights of the afterlife. My brother also discovered that you can play hidden special stages with other non-Sonic games.

The year after, we got a PSX (PS1 to all the plebians out there). My brother got Twisted Metal 2 and I got Spyro the Dragon. I played a bunch of Spyro, but my brother and I mostly played TM2. I LOVED the dark zaniness of the game and the comic book-styled cutscenes fit that game wonerfully! (Too bad they went with 3D cutscenes in TM3).

Ah, I miss my childhood. If only I could just visit one day from my past, it easily would have been one of those few Christmas days.

 

[Dust2dust]

I got two vivid memories of happy xmas related to videogames. First one around 1999. My sister asked me to buy (she paid for it) a PS1 and mod it, to give as a christmas present for her kids. So I did. It was the very first console I ever modded. It went well. I also burned about 10 game CDs (it took an awfully long time at 2X speed back then). The kids were so happy with their present. Their eyes were bright and they couldn't believe it!

Second memories some years later. Another sister of mine bought for her kids a Wii console, along with Mario Kart Wii and a fitness game to be played with a board. Again, the kids' reaction was worth a million! That actually got me to register here and learn how to hack the console. The kids managed to break their Mario Kart disc and it became unreadable, so my sister welcomed me to hack her Wii and get a hard disk full of games.

 

[Leon11]

Related to videogames maybe in 1998 when i received Tomb Raider III for PS1, it was released in November of the same year i think. Months to finish that huge game at the time. The year after, Soul Reaver for PS1 too, great game as well, ones of my favourites.

 

[DinohScene]

Favourite gaming Christmas memory?
I guess all the Christmasses me n me bf spent dicking around in the snow on GTAO and RDO.

 

[2short]

getting ducktales for the og gameboy back in 93 and having a blast The music still haunts me.